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March 16, 2007
TT: Words to the wise
Chris Thile, the mandolin-playing sparkplug of Nickel Creek, is now leading a group of his own, the Tensions Mountain Boys. They’re performing tomorrow night at Zankel Hall, and the program includes the premiere of a new multi-movement composition by Chris called The Blind Leaving the Blind. I wrote the program notes:Chris Thile has spent the past two decades tirelessly pushing at the boundaries of bluegrass. Widely acclaimed as the outstanding mandolin virtuoso of his generation, he’s equally admired for his singing and songwriting. Now, in his first post-Nickel Creek project, he’s broken through to something completely different—yet no less deeply rooted in the timeless traditions from which his music springs.
The Blind Leaving the Blind is a 40-minute suite in four movements for voice, mandolin, violin, banjo, guitar, and bass. That’s the standard bluegrass lineup, of course, but The Blind Leaving the Blind doesn’t fit into that familiar pigeonhole, or any other. It’s not a medley-like string of songs, but a through-composed piece in which vocal passages and extended instrumental interludes are woven together into a tightly integrated whole that fuses the song-based structures of folk and pop with the large-scale, organically developed forms of classical music….
The concert starts at 8:30. For more information, or to read the rest of my notes, go here.
Posted March 16, 2007 12:01 PM
